Sunday

Thing 8. Share Your Creations

Big Huge Labs Mosaic Maker

A hallmark of Web 2.0 is sharing--your thoughts, ideas, plans, photos, videos, and more. Many Web 2.0 tools we have or will look at are sharing tools—Flickr, YouTube, wikis, blogs, and more all let you share images, videos, and/or information. Del.ic.ious lets you share your bookmarks and the social media sites let you share your likes and dislikes on things you’ve read online.

The tools in this Thing let you share many different kinds of creations via the Web. No need for the computer to have the right software installed to open a presentation, no attachments to open, no remembering your flash drive--you just need an account (usually) and a computer with Internet access. Handy as a backup for your presentations at conferences, your vacation photos, your book preferences, or, as you see in eFolio Minnesota, your personal accomplishments. Web2.0=Sharing!

For this Thing, explore each of the tools listed and then:

1. Choose one of the tools listed under Slideshows, Photos, Databases, and eFolio (and create a slideshow, photo montage, or database. Add photos or information and then link it to your blog.

Create and Share Slideshows
You can use a service like these as the primary delivery method for a presentation or you can use it to share your presentation after you have delivered it. You can share a slide deck on your library Web site to highlight a program, book displays, or anything else you can think to do. Here is an example of a shared slide show Web 2.0 Tools in Your Classroom.

Share Your Photos
Flickr and other photo hosting sites are an obvious way to share photos. The sites in this Thing offer "fancier" presentations of your photos. While these are “slide shows,” too, they don’t have the narrative flow of a formal presentation. These tools work best for vacation or library program photo sharing on a blog or Web site

Picture Trail offers many different ways to organize an display your photos. Called Flicks, they can ad pizzazz to yor Web page or blog. Upload your photos to Picture Tail, arrange them into albums, choose your Flick slideshow format, and then save. Just copy the automatically-generated code and paste it into your blog where you want the Flick to appear. This is a Moving Thumbnails Flick.

Flickr badge creates a set of photos that displays horizontally or vertically. You can use your photos or everyone’s to add photo interest to your blog. (after you sign into Flicker, go to http://www.flickr.com/badge.gne)

Big Huge Lab offers many tools for using your photos to illustrate different things—billboards, name badges, motivational posters, and more. It also has a cool feature called Mosaic Maker. The mosaic a the top is an example of the result. Upload your photos (account required) and arrange them in a grid.

Remember, "free" has a price. In the case of many Web 2.0 tools, it is advertising or "special offers." So click through the ad pages, and use the tools. In PictureTrail, once you have viewed the offers, they won't (usually) appear again.

Databases
You can create and share databases of information, too. Create a book “want to read” or recommendations database and put a link on your blog or Web page.

Lazybase lets you create databases that only you can edit or allows edits from others. Here is an example of a non-editable database: Award Wining Fiction

It’s All About You! eFolio MinnesotaeFolio Minnesota is "a multimedia electronic portfolio designed to help you create a living showcase of your education, career and personal achievements." All Minnesota residents, including students enrolled in Minnesota schools, educators and others can use eFolio Minnesota to reach their career and education goals. See Before You Begin to learn more about using this cutting-edge electronic portfolio tool, or go straight to Sign Up.

Need more or want to explore? 50 Web 2.0 Ways to Tell a Story is a huge list of tools you can use to create and share online. There are tools for storytelling, scrapbooking, video, audio, remixing, cartooning, and much, much more.

Blog Prompts

What uses do these tools have for library or personal use?

Was the tool you used easy to navigate and understand?

Would you recommend it to others?

Do you use other sharing tools for photos, documents, or other creations that you would recommend?

Challenge (optional)
1. Create one of each of the sharing types—slide show, photo montage, database, eFolio and then link the results and blog about your experience.

10 comments:

What I didn't like about Picture Trail and Flicks is that you have to purchase a book for $2.00. Yes, that's cheap, but I don't want to have to purchase anything. Did anyone else find this to be true and/or bothersome?Sandy

I just went to Picture Trail and you don't have to buy anything. You just have to click "skip" at the bottom of each page.It then brings up another offer but if you continue to click on skip you eventually get through it. It is bothersome but I suppose this is why they can offer the product for free.

I created a Flickr badge -- but can't seem to get it onto my blog. I tried pasting the code as directed into the blog, then the places on "Customize" for html, for slideshow, and for photo. Any suggestions? Thanks.Gretchen

I can't seem to get the Flickr badge to show on my blog either. So far I haven't had luck getting things to show up on the blog following directions, the only way I got some pictures on was to save it to my computer, then upload it. Code hasn't worked, and the automatic posting (from the site) hasn't worked, so I can't recommend anything to other staff yet, as I can't get it right ! UGH!Bluecat23

I created a short presentation at Slideshare.com and successfully embedded it into my blog. However, I found an error on one of the slides after it was posted. When I went back to Slideshare, I was not able to edit the presentation to correct the error. This is a huge disadvantage in using this site.

Help! I have figured out how to create the mosaic, and post it on my blog, but it so small I can't see the pics. I've tried putting it in the "body" of the blog, instead of the right column, hoping it would fill the space, but no luck. Any suggestions? Thanks!!

I found it oddly difficult to get into flikr badge, but it's totally cool now that it's on my blog. It is somehow updated automatically, so when I look at it later, it has been refreshed with new photos on my chosen theme. I wish I could put something like this on the home page I use all the time.

This statewide program is brought to you by Minnesota’s seven multicounty multitype library systems (multitypes). The multitypes improve library services by promoting & facilitating cooperation among the academic, public, school library media centers, & special libraries within their regions. This program is part of the professional development that all of the multitypes provide for the library staff of their members.